FRANKFURT, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Europe’s leading discount retailer Aldi is considering stepping up cooperation between its two separate namesake companies Aldi Nord and Aldi Sued, a German monthly reported.

The two companies are discussing jointly procuring some goods and in a second step merging their procurement units, Manager Magazin reported on Thursday, citing minutes from a November Aldi management meeting.

Aldi, owned by one of Germany’s richest families, was separated along geographical lines into two firms in 1961, each lead by one of the Albrecht brothers.

According to the report, Aldi Nord and Aldi Sued are also discussing harmonising functions such as quality control, corporate responsibility, advertisement and logistics and eventually even merging.